David Beckham has called his Los Angeles Galaxy team-mate Landon Donovan "unprofessional" after the latter made derogatory comments about his captain without confronting him first. Beckham, who was making his first public appearance in California since returning from his five-month loan spell at Milan, said he had not spoken to Donovan, who called him a bad captain and portrayed him as stingy in an upcoming book The Beckham Experiment, written by Grant Wahl.

"It's unprofessional in my eyes. In every football player's eyes throughout the world it would be unprofessional to speak out about a team-mate especially in the press and not to your face," Beckham said. "But I'm going to turn it on a positive spin because that's what this needs. But in 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players and not once have I been criticised for my professionalism. It's important to get this cleared up and I will be speaking to Landon either this evening or over the next couple of days.

"I'm personally very professional when I am on the field. I don't care what people say about me off the field, once I'm on the field I'm professional and if there is a chance for him to score, I will be giving him the ball. Me and Landon will talk, but that will be a private conversation."

Beckham said he would not be reading the book. "This is an unofficial book that I have not participated in. I haven't sat down one to one or spoken about the book, so there is not comment where I have sat down with the journalist and gone through. There are many unofficial books that have been published about me, so this is just another one on the shelf."

Galaxy played on Saturday, with Beckham returning to his first practice with the team on Monday. He feels he will have no problem adjusting to the pace of the MLS after his time in Italy. "It's not going to be difficult because we've got talent on our team. It's just about confidence. It will be different coming back, but I don't see any problems."

Beckham added that he would return to Milan in 2010 if he is given the opportunity, to boost his chances of making one last World Cup appearance with England. "To be involved in the World Cup and to be involved with this England squad, I have to give myself the chance to be at that top level. I'll do that personally and anything to do that. It's just saying that for the moment, this is what I need to do. It doesn't mean I'm running away from a project I believe in. I think the experiences I've had can only help this team."